I haven't been a very active member of this community the past few years while I was TiVo-less, but I jumped back into the TiVo fold last winter when DirecTV rolled out Phoenix as a test for the new Tivo. I was one of the first people to get one and I was so excited.

Fast forward to 8 months later...and I've had it. I have to say, that with what I have available to me, the DirecTV HD DVR is far superior to what they've allowed TiVo to produce.

The Tivo just makes so many mistakes and is missing so many features that I'm calling them today to see what my options are to getting rid of it. I'm guessing I"m stuck with it and I'll probably just move it to one of my back bedrooms and get things going again with the whole home setup from DTV again.

I just can't believe how disappointed I've been...this TiVo has almost no improvements over the one I used 4-5 years ago, aside from HD and folders.

Whoop-dee-doo.

I'm not sure who's fault it is....Tivo or DirecTV, but it doesn't really matter, I guess in the end when you can't do anything about it. I used to make a pretty good side living years ago modding Tivos for people, so I've been very familiar with them over the years. I'm not making this decision very lightly.

I guess I'm posting to see if anyone can talk me out of it...LOL...or hear other people's experiences and see if anyone else has done the same.

Thanks for listening! I'm looking forward to hearing what people have to say.

I suppose it depends on what your expectations are. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have bothered with the THR22 (I also have an HR21). But my wife was adamant that she wanted TiVo, and all she cared about was that the UI be as close as possible to her beloved HR10. And that's just what the THR22 is - an HR10 that is capable of receiving the MPEG4 channels, with limited Internet connectivity. It works well enough, though there are minor glitches such as ending a recording 30 seconds early (where the HR21 got the whole show.)

This is what we've been told was coming for the last 2-3 years (I've lost track now). If you expected something with more feature parity with the HRxx line, I can understand your disappointment. For me, the THR22 is exactly what I expected and domestic harmony has resumed.

I suppose you're right. But what happened with me was I had one of the original DirecTiVos and I had used it right up until I wanted to get HD and the only way to get it was use their in-house equipment. I had this huge runaround with them, but that story aside, I wound up using their equipment for about 4 years. It started out pretty crappy but got better as it went along, till now where it's actually a pretty damn nice machine.

So, I think what happened to me was watching this very gradual improvement made me kind of forget the state that TiVo was in when I quit using it. I guess I had rose-colored glasses remembering what the user experience was like, and missed the fun that I had with the TiVo, so I just barreled right into it without thinking it through.

Regardless, I'm just disappointed. It really sucks. LOL I just wonder who's fault it really is....DirecTV for not allowing TiVo to add certain features or TiVo for not putting in the effort to make it a better system.

You have to remember that it's not just a question of D* not allowing TiVo to add features or TiVo not making a better system. As a TV provider, there are many things that D* either do not want you to be able to do or it's simply not allowed.

For example, up until about a year ago, I worked for a cable company. We introduced the TiVo Premiere as an option and advertised it along with our internet service as a streaming device as well as a DVR. Starz forced us to remove Netflix from the machine as, at the time, StarzPlay was offered and it was seen as a conflict of interest. If you could stream all of the content, why subscribe to the movie channel?

At the end of the day, it is still primarily a D* receiver, but with TiVo software. It's never going to be a full TiVo, so there will always be some disappointment.

__________________"YOU! YES YOU! STAND STILL, LADDIE""How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

The only thing I can say is that D***** did not want you to select a TiVo unit over one of theirs. They must have made it real difficult for the TiVo engineers to make a less than optimum unit. Compare it to the C******* cable offering and they are a different animal entirely.

Personally I fought with the installer when he tried to force one of their own boxes on to me and claimed, "They are all TiVo's sir, no difference". Two hours later a car pulls up with the real thing and drops it off. No apology and none needed.

The extra charges and features aside we are happy with the TiVo HD unit and we are one of those families that held on to our old TiVo units for dear life until D****** caved in. Maybe they didn't cave so much as see what happened with the OTHER dish network in court.

So does D offer a better unit of their own? Yes and maybe. For us, it meant features that we can get along without over TiVo controls and personality that we love.